Bobby Jones (1902-1971) | New Georgia Encyclopedia Stephen R. Lowe , Olivet Nazarene University, Bourbonnais, Illinois, 06/18/2002 Last edited by Chris Dobbs on 09/23/2016 The greatest amateur golfer ever, Bobby Jones dominated his sport in the 1920s. In the eight seasons from 1923 to 1930, Jones won thirteen major championships, including five U.S. Amateurs, four U.S. Opens, three British Opens, and one British Amateur. On September 27, 1930, he became the only man to win all four major titles in one season, completing the "Grand Slam" of golf. Then, while still in his athletic prime at the age of twenty-eight, he retired from competition to devote more time to his family and his law practice . Robert Bobby Jones Tyre "Bobby" Jones II was born to Clara Thomas and Robert Purmedus Jones on March 17, 1902, in Atlanta .

He was named after his paternal grandfather, a prominent businessman from Canton (Jones later adopted "Jr." out of respect for his father). In 1907 his father, a successful attorney, joined the Atlanta Athletic Club, which owned the East Lake Country Club in DeKalb County , where the family spent every summer thereafter. It was at East Lake that Bobby Jones learned to play golf, mostly by mimicking the swing of the club's professional, Stewart Maiden. Jones dramatically improved his skill with each passing summer. After winning many regional events, in the fall of 1916 he entered his first national competition, the U.S. Amateur, held at the Merion Cricket Club near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Although he was eliminated in the third round, the fourteen-year-old exceeded the expectations of most observers and was quickly dubbed the nation's top golf prodigy. Unfortunately, Jones did not continue to meet either his own or others' expectations. Throughout the next seven seasons, he failed to win anything bigger than a regional event. To make matters worse, Jones developed a reputation as a spoiled, club-throwing hothead. A perfectionist by nature, he was easily angered and too immature to handle his mistakes on the links.

Jones's most egregious example of unsportsmanlike behavior occurred at the 1921 British Open. After struggling through the front side of the third round, he simply picked up his ball on the eleventh hole, figuratively "tore up his scorecard," and quit. In the winter of 1922-23 Jones experienced a metamorphosis; he evolved from a temperamental youth into a disciplined young gentleman on and off the course. He won his first major title, the U.S. Open, later that year to begin his eight-season domination of the sport. Aside from the Grand Slam in 1930, Jones's most impressive achievement is his record in the U.S. Open. In the 1920s Jones won the event four times and also had four runner-up finishes. His career is all the more remarkable considering that he competed as an amateur rather than as a professional. Always displaying a sense of modesty, Jones regularly reminded his fans that some things were more important than winning. He became famous, for example, for calling penalty strokes on himself, even when it cost him a championship.

Moreover, Jones never accepted prize money, did not play as often as most professionals, and chose to focus on the national championships. Those choices allowed him time to pursue other priorities, including his education and family. In 1922 Jones graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a degree in engineering. Two years later he added a second bachelor's degree, this one in English literature from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Then in the fall of 1926, Jones enrolled in Emory University 's law program. After just three semesters, he passed the Georgia bar exam and began practicing law at his father's firm early in 1928. Jones's most important priority, though, was his family. In the summer of 1924 he married Mary Malone. Over the next seven years, the couple had three children, Clara Malone, Robert Tyre III, and Mary Ellen. Although Jones retired from competition in 1930, he did not retire from the golf world or from public life. Freed from the financial restraints of formal amateurism, Jones quickly capitalized on his golf success.

In 1931 and 1933 he filmed two series of golf instructional shorts that brought him an estimated $250,000. Bobby Jones He also signed with A. G. Spalding & Brothers to design and endorse a line of golf clubs. Throughout his life, he wrote hundreds of articles and several books on golf, including the autobiographical works Down the Fairway (with O. B. Keeler, 1927) and Golf Is My Game (1960). His most outstanding project in retirement was the creation of the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta and the annual invitational tournament it spawned, the Masters . First played in 1934, the Masters became recognized as one of the four major tournaments in golf. Jones made an appearance each spring at the Masters, even playing in the event until 1948, when his life took a tragic turn. Afflicted that year with a rare spinal disease called syringomyelia, Jones had to give up golf and was soon forced into a wheelchair. He took his final trip to the Masters in 1968.

Finally succumbing to his illness, Jones died on December 18, 1971, at the age of sixty-nine. Through it all, he refused to complain about his fate, always presenting a model of perseverance and character. His handling of his illness, the memory of his competitive career, and his Masters Tournament established Jones as one of sports' most outstanding and admirable heroes. In 1963 he was one of the first three professional athletes inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame . The Atlanta Gas Light Company awarded its Shining Light Award to Jones in 1978. A permanent exhibition entitled Down the Fairway with Bobby Jones is on display at the Atlanta History Center , and Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004), a feature film chronicling the Jones's life and career, was partially filmed in Georgia.

You Might Also Like Bobby Jones, Golf Master, Dies; Only Player to Win Grand Slam Bobby Jones, Golf Master, Dies; Only Player to Win Grand Slam By FRANK LITSKY In the decade following World War I, America luxuriated in the Golden Era of Sports and its greatest collection of super-athletes: Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb in baseball, Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney in boxing, Bill Tilden in tennis, Red Grange in football and Bobby Jones in golf. Many of their records have been broken now, and others are destined to be broken. But one, sports experts agree, may outlast them--Bobby Jones's grand slam of 1930. Jones, an intense, unspoiled young man, started early on the road to success. At the age of 10, he shot a 90 for 18 holes. At 11 he was down to 80, and at 12 he shot a 70. At 9 he played against men, at 14 he won a major men's tournament and at 21 he was United States Open champion.

At 28 he achieved the grand slam--victories in one year in the United States Open, British Open, United States Amateur and British Amateur championships. At that point, he retired from tournament golf. A nation that idolized him for his success grew to respect him even more for his decision to treat golf as a game rather than a way of life. This respect grew with the years. "First come my wife and children," he once explained. "Next comes my profession--the law. Finally, and never as a life in itself, comes golf." His record, aside from the grand slam, was magnificent. He won the United States Open championship four times (1923, 1926, 1929 and 1930), the British Open three times (1926, 1927 and 1930) and the United States Amateur five times (1924, 1925, 1927, 1928 and 1930). "Jones is as truly the supreme artist of golf as Paderewski is the supreme artist of the piano," George H.

Greenfield wrote in The New York Times in 1930. Felt the Tension Success did not come easily. Though Jones was cool and calculating outwardly, he seethed inside. He could never eat properly during a major tournament. The best his stomach would hold was dry toast and tea. The pressure of tournament competition manifested itself in other ways too. Everyone expected Jones to win every time he played, including Atlanta friends who often bet heavily on him. He escaped the unending pressure by retiring from competition. "Why should I punish myself like this over a golf tournament?" he once asked. "Sometimes I'd pass my mother and dad on the course, look at them and not even see them because I was so concentrated on the game. Afterward, it made a fellow feel a little silly." The quality of the man projected itself, too. He was worshiped as a national hero in Scotland, the birthplace of golf. Scots would come for miles around to watch him play. In 1936, on a visit, he made an unannounced trip to the Royal and Ancient Golf Club at St. Andrews for a quiet morning round with friends.

There were 5,000 spectators at the first tee and 7,000 at the 18th. Businesses closed as word spread that "Our Bobby is back." In 1927, when he tapped in his final putt to win the British Open there, an old Scot stood by the green and muttered: "The man canna be human." Off the course, Jones was convivial in a quiet way. He was a good friend and always the gentleman, though he had full command of strong language when desired. He had a fine sense of humor, and he laughed easily. He smoked cigarettes and drank bourbon. He was besieged by people who wanted to play a social round of golf with him. When they talked with him, it was always golf. He managed to tolerate their one-sided approach to life. He also learned to put up with the name of Bobby, which he hated (he preferred Bob). He was not always so serene. As a youngster, he had a reputation for throwing clubs when everything was not going right.

When Jim Barnes, the 1921 United States Open champion, watched him let off steam, he said: "Never mind that club-throwing and the beatings he's taking. Defeat will make him great. He's not satisfied now with a pretty good shot. He has to be perfect. That's the way a good artist must feel." The defeats Barnes spoke of were frequent in the early years. For young Jones, though he had the game of a man, had the emotions of a growing boy. He never won the big tournaments until he got his temper under control. At 18, he learned that his greatest opponent was himself. He was playing at Toledo one day with Harry Vardon, the great English professional, and was his usual brash self. They were about even when Jones dribbled a shot into a bunker. Hoping to ease his embarrassment, he turned to Vardon and asked: "Did you ever see a worse shot?" "No," replied the crusty Vardon. It as the only word he spoke to Jones all day. Jones matured, so much so that O. B.

Keeler, an Atlanta sports writer and his long-time Boswell, once wrote: "He has more character than any champion in our history." He also had the dream of every golfer--a picture swing. No one taught it to him, for he never took a golf lesson in his life. He learned the swing by watching Stewart Maiden, a Scottish professional at the Atlanta Athletic Club course. He would follow Maiden for a few holes, then run home and mimic the swing. His putting was famous. So was his putter, a rusty, goosenecked club known as Calamity Jane. His strength was driving, putting and an ability to get out of trouble. He was an imaginative player, and he never hesitated to take a chance. In fact, he seldom hesitated on any shot, and he earned an unfair reputation as a mechanical golfer. The game often baffled him. "There are times," he once said, "when I feel that I know less about what I'm doing on a golf course than anyone else in the world." When he was an infant, doctors were not sure that he would survive, let alone play golf.

He had a serious digestive ailment until he was 5, and he stayed home while other children played. In his later years, he was crippled by syringomyelia, a chronic disease of the spinal cord, and he had circulation and heart trouble. Robert Tyre Jones Jr. (named for his grandfather) was born on St. Patrick's Day, 1902, in Atlanta. His father was a star outfielder at the University of Georgia, and the youngster's first love was baseball. He also tried tennis. At the age of 9 he settled down to golf. His parents had taken up the game after moving to a cottage near the East Lake course of the Atlanta Athletic Club. Young Bobby would walk around the course, watch the older folk play and learn by example. He was only 6 years old, a scrubby youngster with skinny arms and legs, when he won a six-hole tournament. At 9 he was the club's junior champion. In Philadelphia Tourney He was 14 when he journeyed to the Merion Cricket Club near Philadelphia for his first United States Amateur championship. He was a chunky lad of 5 feet 4 inches and 165 pounds and somewhat knock-kneed.

He was wearing his first pair of long trousers. After qualifying for match play, he defeated Eben M. Byers, a former champion, in the first round. He beat Frank Dyer, a noted player at the time, in the second round, after losing five of the first six holes. Then he lost to Robert A. Gardner, the defending champion, 5 and 3. In 1922 he reached the semifinals of the United States Amateur before losing. That ended what he called his seven lean years. Next came what Keeler called "the eight fat years" as Jones finally achieved the heights. All this time, golf was a sidelight to education. Jones wanted to be an engineer, and he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering at Georgia Tech. Then he decided to become a lawyer. He went to Harvard and earned another bachelor's degree, then to Emory University in Atlanta for a Bachelor of Laws degree. In 1928, he joined his father's law firm in Atlanta. In 1924, Jones decided that he was worrying too much about his opponent in match-play (man against man) competition. He vowed to play for pars and forget about his opponent.

This was a turning point in his career. He started to win match-play competition. That year, at Merion, Pa., he won the United States Amateur for the first time. In the final, he defeated George Von Elm by the overwhelming score of 9 and 8. Also in 1924, he married Mary Malone, his high school sweetheart. In 1929 Jones had a close call in the United States Open at the Winged Foot Golf Club, Mamaroneck, N.Y. He sank a 12-foot sloping, sidehill putt on the last green to tie Al Espinosa. The next day, Jones won their 36-hole title playoff by 23 strokes. Then came 1930 and the grand slam. Lloyds of London quoted odds of 50 to 1 that Jones wouldn't win the world's four major tournaments that year. He won them. First came the British Amateur. He started his opening match by shooting 3, 4, 3 and 2. In the final he beat Roger Wethered, 7 and 6.

Next was the British Open at Hoylake, England, and his 72-hole score of 291 won that championship. Back home, Jones got his sternest test of the year in the United States Open at Interlachen near Minneapolis. There were 15,000 spectators in the gallery as he played the par-4 18th hole. He got a birdie 3 by sinking a 40-foot undulating putt, and his 287 won by two strokes. He had become the first man to win three of the four major titles in one year. The last of the grand-slam tournaments, the United States Amateur at Merion, was almost anticlimactic. No one doubted for the moment that Jones would win. He captured the qualifying medal. He routed Jess Sweetser, 9 and 8, in the semifinal round, and in the final he defeated Gene Homans, 8 and 7. The crowd surged around him so wildly that it took a detachment of United States Marines to get him out safely. Soon after, he retired from tournament play and made a series of golf motion pictures, the only time he ever made money from the game.

Later, he became a vice president of A. G. Spalding & Bros., the sporting goods manufacturer. He became a wealthy lawyer and soft-drink bottler and a business and social leader in Atlanta. He never played serious tournament golf again. He didn't seem to mind. "Golf is like eating peanuts," he said. "You can play too much or too little. I've become reconciled to the fact that I'll never play as well as I used to." A few years later, Jones and the late architect, Alister Mackensie, designed the Augusta National Golf Course in Georgia. In 1934 the Masters tournament was started there, and in Jones's lifetime many golf people considered it the most important tournament of all. Jones played in the first Masters and in several thereafter, but he was never among the leaders. He always wore his green jacket, signifying club membership, at victory ceremonies, and he served as club president. He became strong enough to rip a pack of playing cards across the middle, but his health deteriorated. He underwent spinal surgery in 1948 and 1950.

He was forced to use one cane, then two canes and then a wheelchair, and his weight dropped to less than 100 pounds. He last saw the Masters in 1967. He was a close friend of Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the President often used his cottage adjacent to the Augusta National course for golfing vacations. During his first term in office, the President painted a 40-by-32-inch oil portrait of Jones at the peak of his game. On the back was printed by hand: "Bob--from his friend D.D.E. 1953." In January of 1953, three months after a heart attack, Jones was honored at Golf House, the United States Golf Association headquarters in Manhattan. Augusta National members, including General Eisenhower, had donated another oil portrait to be hung at Golf House. A highlight of the ceremony was the reading of a letter from the President. "Those who have been fortunate enough to know him," the letter said, "realize that his fame as a golfer is transcended by his inestimable qualities as a human being. .

.His gift to his friends is the warmth that comes from unselfishness, superb judgement, nobility of character, unwavering loyalty to principle." Bobby Jones listened and cried. ESPN.com: Bobby Jones was golf's fast study Bobby Jones was golf's fast study By Larry Schwartz Special to ESPN.com Bobby Jones was a child prodigy who became The Man. A short-tempered, club-throwing youth, Jones turned into an even-dispositioned and unruffled champion. In the Golden Age of Sport, Jones took his place alongside such giants as Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Red Grange and Bill Tilden. From 1923 to 1929, the Georgia gentleman dominated golf, birdieing his way into this country's heart by winning nine major championships. Bobby Jones found success immediately on the golf course, struggled to find himself as a teen and then had seven phenomenal seasons before retiring from the game at age 28 in 1930.

Then in 1930, he won the Grand Slam, which one writer picturesquely called "the impregnable quadrilateral." He was so popular that he was accorded a ticker-tape parade in New York -- before he won the final two legs of the Slam. First, Jones conquered England, winning the British Amateur and Open. Then he conquered this country, winning the U.S. Open and Amateur. No one else has ever won a Slam (for years, the two major amateur tournaments have been replaced by the PGA Championship and the Masters, which Jones helped design). Adding to the Jones myth was his retirement from competitive golf less than two months after completing the Slam. He was 28. Starting at the age of 14, Jones spent seven lean years conquering himself. Starting at the age of 21, he spent eight fat years conquering everybody else. At 14, when he first entered a major tournament, he was considered a sure shot for greatness. When he hadn't achieved it by the ripe old age of 20, many were considering him a failure. Of this period, Jones said, "I was full of pie, ice cream and inexperience.

To me, golf was just a game to beat someone. I didn't know that someone was me." Robert Tyre Jones Jr. (he was named after his grandfather) was born on March 17, 1902 in Atlanta to well-to-do parents. A sickly child, he was 5 before he could eat solid food. In an effort to add some robustness to his frail frame, the family bought a summer house next to the fairways of Atlanta's East Lake Country Club. At 6, Jones was swinging sawed-off golf clubs. At 7, he was mimicking the swing of Stewart Maiden, the country club pro. "He was never lonesome with a golf club in his hands," Maiden said. "He must have been born with a deep love for the game. He was certainly born with the soul of a perfectionist." At 11, he shot an 80 on the old course at East Lake. His father looked at the card, then his son, and with wet eyes hugged him. At 14, with high hopes and lots of national press, he played in his first U.S. Amateur, winning two matches before being eliminated in the third round.

ZONE POLL "Bobby was a short, rotund kid, with the face of an angel and the temper of a timber wolf," Grantland Rice wrote in The Saturday Evening Post in 1940. "At a missed shot, his sunny smile could turn more suddenly into a black storm cloud than the Nazis can grab a country. Even at the age of 14 Bobby could not understand how anyone ever could miss any kind of golf shot." But for the next seven years, Jones missed many shots and struggled with his temper. His low point came during the third round of the 1921 British Open, when, at the 11th green, he committed the unpardonable sin of picking up. He had already taken 50-some shots. "It was the most inglorious failure of my golfing life," he said some 40 years later. Finally, at the 1923 U.S. Open at Inwood Country Club in New York, Jones conquered his demons and broke through. But it didn't come easy. He looked like a champion with three holes left, but went bogey-bogey-double bogey, opening the door for Bobby Cruickshank to tie him.

"I didn't finish like a champion," Jones said. "I finished like a yellow dog." In the 18-hole playoff, the two were tied going into the par-4 18th. Neither drive was in the fairway. After Cruickshank laid up, Jones had a decision to make. His ball was 190 yards from the green, resting in loose dirt at the edge of the rough, and water on his next shot was a possibility if he went for the green. Jones liked to describe a dangerous shot that only a golfer with real guts could pull off as a shot that required "sheer delicatessen." Perhaps no shot in his distinguished career was more "sheer delicatessen." With his 2-iron, he drilled the ball over the water and to within eight feet of the pin. Two putts later, Jones had won his first major. That 2-iron started Jones on his magnificent eight-year run against the best golfers in the world. While many of his championships were won easily, he almost gave away the 1929 U.S. Open. With six holes to go, Jones led by six strokes.

While Al Espinosa played the final six holes in 2-under par, Jones bogeyed the 12th and triple-bogeyed the 15th. He missed the green on 18 and needed to make a 12-foot putt for a tie. He stroked Calamity Jane, his famous putter, and the ball slowly worked its way toward the hole. It hesitated at the cup, and dropped in. The next day, Jones won the 36-hole playoff by a whopping 23 strokes, shooting 3-under 141 to Espinosa's 164. While Jones' driver and putter were his two best clubs, his best weapon was his will to win. He performed at his best when the pressure was at its peak. The first stop for the Grand Slam in 1930 was St. Andrews, site of the British Amateur. Of his eight winning matches in the tournament, he won three of them by the slim margin of 1-up. That's how close his Slam hopes came to being slammed in his face at the start. Two weeks later, he teed off in the British Open on the links of Royal Liverpool at Hoylake.

He won his third British Open in five years, winning by two strokes. At the U.S. Open at the Interlachen Country Club in a Minneapolis suburb, Jones appeared to have the tournament won with two holes left. But a double-bogey on the 71st hole cut his lead to one. On the final hole, looking to two putt from 40 feet, he stroked the ball home for birdie and his fourth U.S. Open championship. He won his fifth U.S. Amateur, which was played outside Philadelphia, in a breeze. Several Marine bodyguards protected Jones from idolatrous fans after he completed the Slam. "In the clubhouse, after a talk with his father, he began to digest the reality that the Grand Slam was factually behind him and with it the ever-accumulating strain he had carried for months," Herbert Warren Wind wrote. "When he appeared for the presentation ceremonies he looked years younger." Jones retired with 13 majors, a record that would stand for more than 40 years. "There were no worlds left for him to conquer," Wind wrote.

Jones, who had graduated from Georgia Tech and Harvard and was a lawyer in Atlanta, played lots of friendly golf, but he emerged from his retirement only once a year to play The Masters. In his last years, Jones was confined to a wheelchair because of syringomyelia, a fluid-filled cavity in the spinal cord that caused him first pain, then loss of feeling and muscle atrophy. The illness became a slow death for Jones, who weighed somewhere between 60 and 90 pounds when he died on Dec. 18, 1971 in Atlanta. "As a young man, he was able to stand up to just about the best that life can offer, which is not easy," Wind wrote, "and later he stood up with equal grace to just about the worst." Bobby Jones Facts & Biography | Famous Golfers Famous For: Being the most successful amateur golfer in history Awards: AAU Sullivan Award Golfing legend Bobby Jones was born to Robert Purmedus Jones and Clara Thomas in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 17th, 1903. Bobby Jones was named after his grandfather, a popular businessman from Canton.

In 1907, his father joined Atlanta Athletic Club, which also owned the East Lake Country Club, where the family spent each summer. It was at East Lake Country Club that Jones learned how to play golf, mainly by imitating the swing of the club’s professional Stewart Maiden. Achievements Bobby played against adults at age 9 and won his very first major men’s tournament. He became the only golfer to win the United States Open champion at 21. Bobby Jones’ crowning glory was The Grand Slam of the year 1930, at age 28, in which he became the first golfer to win the US Open, United States Amateur, British Amateur championships as well as British Open in a single year. At that point, Jones retired from tournament golf. Jones in Retirement While Bobby Jones retired from tournament golf in 1930, he did not leave the public spotlight or the golf world. Freed from monetary restraints of the formal amateurism, he quickly capitalized on his golf achievements. In 1931 and 1933, Jones filmed golf instructional videos.

Throughout his life, Jones wrote several books on golf, including the autobiographical works Golf Is My Game and Down the Fairway. His exceptional project was the establishment of Augusta National Golf Club as well as the annual Masters tournament which is held at the club. It became one of the most popular tournaments in the game. Social Life Jones was said to be a good friend and gentleman. He had a sense of humor. He drank bourbon and smoked cigarettes. Jones was overwhelmed by the people who wanted to play golf with him. Jones appeared every spring at the Masters tournament, playing in the event until 1948, when he suffered a spinal injury. He had to give up the game of golf and was forced into a wheelchair. Jones continued to run his business interests from his Atlanta home. He took his last tour to the Masters in the year 1968. Ultimately succumbing to his sickness, Bobby Jones died in 1971, at the age 69. More than any golfer in history, Jones is a model of the complete golfer. Extremely gifted, he was also an intelligent man, and he merged all these forces to become not just a singular champion, but also a hero to many.

Famous Golfers Bobby Jones is born - Mar 17, 1902 - HISTORY.com Bobby Jones is born Publisher A+E Networks On March 17, 1902, Robert Tyre Jones, Jr. is born in Atlanta, Georgia. Jones, the first great American golfer, was a hero of the so-called “Golden Age of Sports” in America along with baseball player Babe Ruth, boxer Jack Dempsey, tennis player Bill Tilden and football player Red Grange. Bobby Jones had the picture-perfect swing of every golfer’s dreams, despite never having taken a lesson. He modeled his swing after that of Stewart Maiden, a Scottish golfer who was the golf professional at the Atlanta Club. Jones would watch Maiden play, then run home and copy his swing to the best of his ability. It worked: Jones was said to have shot a 70 for 18 holes by the age of 12. At 14, he won his first of five U.S. Amateur Championships at the Merion Cricket Club in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, where, 14 years later, he would win the Grand Slam, his greatest triumph.

Jones’ 1930 Grand Slam–winning the U.S. Open, British Open, U.S. Amateur and British Amateur in the same year–was the first in golf history. The four events took place over a five-month period, with the U.S. Amateur coming last. In the U.S. Amateur final, Jones defeated Gene Homans in head-to-head matchplay format. On the final hole, Jones landed a long putt at the edge of the cup with his famous rusty putter, Calamity Jane. Homans rushed his final putt and walked toward Jones to shake his hand, acknowledging defeat. Understanding the significance of the historic moment, the crowd of 18,000 that was surrounding the green and standing in the fairway rushed toward Jones–it took a squadron of Marines to lead Jones and Homas to safety. Jones retired from golf at the age of 29, shortly after winning the Grand Slam. In 1934, he founded the Augusta National Golf Club, and that same year was among the founders of a new tournament called The Masters. As amateur play became less common, the Masters replaced the U.S. Amateur in the Grand Slam.

Today, a Grand Slam consists of winning the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open and the PGA Championship. Unlike the wealthy golf superstars of today, Jones never turned professional. In fact, he did not earn any money from golf until he began making golf films after his retirement. Over the course of his career, Bobby Jones won four U.S. Opens, five U.S. Amateurs, three British Opens and one British Amateur. His total of 15 major tournaments wasn’t surpassed until Jack Nicklaus won his 16th major in 1980. More on This Topic The Life of Bobby Jones | GolfLink.com The Life of Bobby Jones The Life of Bobby Jones SHARES By Bill Herrfeldt Robert Tyre Jones, Jr., better known as Bobby Jones, was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 17, 1902. By the time he was 6 years old, he had already won his first tournament and was thought of as a golf prodigy. By the time he was 20 years old, he had already won his three Southern Open titles and was well on his way to becoming the most famous golfer who ever lived.

Most interesting about him was that he remained an amateur throughout his career, which lasted until he was 28 years old and he chose to retire from the game. Schooling Bobby Jones graduated from Georgia Tech in 1922 with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. He then attended Harvard and received a second degree, this one in English Literature. Then he returned to Georgia to receive his law degree from Emory University after only one year. He practiced law until his death in 1971. Golf Career When he was 14 years old, he won the Georgia State Amateur Championship and also made it to the third round of the U.S. Amateur Championship. In 1917 and 1918, he was invited to play a number of exhibition matches to raise money for the U.S. war effort. He qualified for the U.S. Open Championship for the first time when he was 18 years old in 1920. Between 1923--when he won his first U.S. Open Championship--and 1930, he won a total of 13 major championships in 20 attempts.

At the time, the major tournaments were the Open and Amateur of both the United States and Great Britain, and he was the first player in history to win both the U.S. and British Opens and is still the only golfer in history to win all four majors in a single calendar year. He was the first person to win the coveted Sullivan Award from the AAU as the athlete of the year, and was the only individual athlete honored with a New York ticker-tape parade. Personal History Bobby Jones had three children with his wife, Mary Rice Malone, whom he married in 1924. Following his retirement in 1930, he made almost 20 instructional golf films and developed the first set of matched clubs for A.G. Spalding & Co. He also collaborated with Alister MacKensie to build the famous Augusta National Golf Club and founded the Masters Golf Championship.He also joined forces with Robert Trent Jones to design the Peachtree Golf Club in Atlanta. Admirable Trait Bobby Jones not only was one of the best golfers who ever lived, he also helped establish the standard of sportsmanship that sets golf apart from many other sports. At the U.S.

Open in 1925, he called a two-stroke penalty on himself for moving the ball with his club. The officials asked the crowd if they saw the ball move, which they didn't. Leaving it up to Jones to make the call, he assessed himself the penalty. He would lose the tournament by a single shot. During an interview following the tournament, he was asked if he would do that again. He simply said, "I would." Death and Final Glory Bobby Jones died on December 18, 1971, after having been diagnosed with syringomyelia, a painful condition that restricted him to a wheelchair. Three years following his death he was posthumously inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, now in St. Augustine, Florida. About The Author Bill Herrfeldt specializes in finance, sports and the needs of retiring people, and has been published in the national edition of "Erickson Tribune," the "Washington Post" and the "Arizona Republic." He graduated from the University of Louisville. Video of the Day Jones, Bobby Dec 18, 1971 Bobby Jones More than any player in history, Bobby Jones is the model of the complete golfer.

Supremely gifted, Jones was also a man of vast intelligence and profound character, and he merged all three forces to become not only a singular champion, but a genuine hero. Wrote Herbert Warren Wind, “In the opinion of many people, of all the great athletes, Jones came the closest to being what we called a great man.” As a golfer, Jones was a giant. In the 1920s, he was “an ultra-athlete,” according to writer and historian Charles Price, “recognized at being better at his game than any other athlete was at his.” While there is no doubt Jones is the finest amateur golfer the game has ever produced, there’s a strong argument that he was the greatest golfer, period. Beginning with his victory in the 1923 U.S. Open at Inwood and ending with his U.S. Amateur victory at Merion in 1930, Jones won 13 championships in 20 tries, the most imposing run of major titles the game has ever seen.

"I think this is what I learned to do best of all." His crowning glory was The Grand Slam of 1930, in which he became the only golfer ever to win the U.S. Amateur, British Amateur, British Open and U.S. Open in the same year, indeed, the only golfer to win all four in a career. When he retired at the end of that year at the age of 28, The New York Times noted the occasion in an editorial that read, “With dignity, he quit the scene on which he nothing common did, or mean.” Jones was born March 17, 1902, in Atlanta. He was clearly a prodigy, and his first championship was the 1916 U.S. Amateur, where as a 14-year-old he went to the third round. From the beginning, Jones’ swing possessed “a drowsy beauty,” in the words of Bernard Darwin. Yet Jones was a passionate man who had to overcome his own frailties of temperament. The strain of competition would cause him to lose as much as 18 pounds in a week. After winning the 1926 U.S.

Open, he suddenly broke into tears in his Columbus, Ohio, hotel room, the strain catching up to him. He had to dominate a fiery temper that hindered him as a youth. As talented as he was, he did not win his first championship until 1923, prompting the early part of his career to be labeled “The Seven Lean Years.” But Jones had a revelation when he discovered that the key to winning was learning to score well when playing badly. “I think this is what I learned to do best of all,” wrote Jones, and “The Seven Fat Years” ensued. FACT Bobby Jones played in 12 Masters Tournaments following his retirement from “competitive” golf in 1930. Jones accomplished all this while playing competitive golf no more than three months in a year at any point in his life. The rest of the time was dedicated to academics, and later, the workaday world of the law. He studied mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech, graduating in three years, received a degree in English Literature from Harvard and attended law school at Emory University, withdrawing in his third semester to pass the bar. He would go on to become one of the game’s most lucid and enlightening writers.

Besides his record and character, Jones’ greatest legacy is Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters Tournament, which he founded in 1934. He played in the tournament several times, never finishing better than 13th. In 1948, he developed syringomyelia, a fluid-filled cavity in his spinal cord causing first pain, then paralysis. Jones never played golf again and was eventually restricted to a wheelchair until his death Dec. 18, 1971. As Wind wrote, “As a young man he was able to stand up to just about the best that life can offer, which isn’t easy, and later he stood up with equal grace to just about the worst.” The USGA’s award for distinguished sportsmanship is the Bob Jones Award. “What Jones did was create a model that everyone, consciously or unconsciously, followed,” said William Campbell. “It is why we have so many fine people in golf.

He showed the world how to do it.” Robert Tyre "Bobby" Jones, Jr (1902 - 1971) - Genealogy Robert Tyre "Bobby" Jones, Jr Birthdate: in Atlanta, Fulton, GA, USA Immediate Family: Father of Robert Tyre Jones, III ; <private> Jones and <private> Jones Managed by: Robert Permedus "Col" Jones, Clara Merrick Jones (born Thomas) Wife: mother About Bobby Jones Robert Tyre "Bobby" Jones Jr. (March 17, 1902 – December 18, 1971) was an American amateur golfer, and a lawyer by profession. Jones was the most successful amateur golfer ever to compete on a national and international level. During his peak as a golfer from 1923 to 1930, he dominated top-level amateur competition, and competed very successfully against the world's best professional golfers. Jones often beat stars such as Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen, the era's top pros.

Jones earned his living mainly as a lawyer, and competed in golf only as an amateur, primarily on a part-time basis, and chose to retire from competition at age 28, though he earned significant money from golf after that, as an instructor and equipment designer. Explaining his decision to retire, Jones said, "It (championship golf) is something like a cage. First you are expected to get into it and then you are expected to stay there. But of course, nobody can stay there."[2] Jones is most famous for his unique "Grand Slam," consisting of his victory in all four major golf tournaments of his era (the open and amateur championships in both the U.S. & the U.K.) in a single calendar year (1930). After retiring from competitive golf in 1930, Jones started and helped to design the Augusta National Golf Club soon afterwards in 1933, and also co-founded the Masters Tournament, which has been annually staged by the club since 1934 (except for 1943–45, when it was cancelled due to World War II). The Masters evolved into one of golf's four major championships.

Jones did come out of retirement in 1934, to play in the Masters, on an exhibition basis until 1948, when he quit golf permanently, due to ill health. Wikipedia ) Robert Tyre "Bobby" Jones Jr. (March 17, 1902 – December 18, 1971) was an American amateur golfer, and a lawyer by profession. Jones was the most successful amateur golfer ever to compete on a national and international level. During his peak as a golfer from 1923 to 1930, he dominated top-level amateur competition, and competed very successfully against the world's best professional golfers. Jones often beat stars such as Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen, the era's top pros. Jones earned his living mainly as a lawyer, and competed in golf only as an amateur, primarily on a part-time basis, and chose to retire from competition at age 28, though he earned significant money from golf after that, as an instructor and equipment designer. Explaining his decision to retire, Jones said, "It (championship golf) is something like a cage.

First you are expected to get into it and then you are expected to stay there. But of course, nobody can stay there." Jones is most famous for his unique "Grand Slam," consisting of his victory in all four major golf tournaments of his era (the open and amateur championships in both the U.S. & the U.K.) in a single calendar year (1930). After retiring from competitive golf in 1930, Jones started and helped to design the Augusta National Golf Club soon afterwards in 1933, and also co-founded the Masters Tournament, which has been annually staged by the club since 1934 (except for 1943–45, when it was cancelled due to World War II). The Masters evolved into one of golf's four major championships. Jones did come out of retirement in 1934, to play in the Masters, on an exhibition basis until 1948, when he quit golf permanently, due to ill health. Early years Jones was born in Atlanta, Georgia. He attended the Georgia Institute of Technology where he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. Jones battled health issues as a young boy, and golf was prescribed to strengthen him.

Encouraged by his father, Jones loved golf from the start. He developed quickly into a child prodigy, who won his first children's tournament at the age of six, and made the third round of the U.S. Amateur Championship at 14. That same year, 1916, he won the Georgia State Amateur Championship for his first important title, at the Capital City Club, in Brookhaven, where he became an active member later in life. He was trained and coached by club professional Stewart Maiden, a native of Carnoustie, Scotland. Maiden was the professional at the Atlanta Athletic Club's East Lake Golf Club, who also trained the somewhat older Alexa Stirling, also a prodigy, at East Lake around the same time.[4] Jones played frequently with his father, Col. Robert P. Jones, a skilled player himself. The younger Jones sometimes battled his own temper on the course, but later cured this problem as he became more experienced. Jones toured the U.S. during World War I from 1917–18, playing exhibition matches before large crowds, often with Alexa Stirling, to generate income for war relief.

Playing in front of such crowds in these matches helped him, as he moved into national competition a bit later on. Jones successfully represented the United States for the first time, in two winning international amateur team matches against Canada, in 1919 and 1920, earning three of a possible four points in foursomes and singles play. In 1919 he travelled to Hamilton Golf and Country Club, for his first serious competitive action outside the U.S., while in 1920, Engineers' G.C., in Roslyn, Long Island hosted the matches. Still a teenager, he was by far the youngest player in the series. Jones also played in the 1919 Canadian Open while in Hamilton, Ontario, performing very well to place tied for second, but 16 shots behind winner J. Douglas Edgar. Edgar had immigrated from England in 1919 to take a club professional's job in Atlanta at Druid Hills Golf Club; Edgar mentored and played frequently with Jones from 1919 to 1921. Edgar was credited by Jones with helping develop his game significantly. Jones qualified for his first U.S.

Open at age 18 in 1920, and was paired with the legendary Harry Vardon for the first two rounds. He won the Southern Amateur three times: 1917, 1920, and 1922. First majors As an adult, he hit his stride in 1923, when he won his first U.S. Open. From that win at New York's Inwood Country Club, through his 1930 victory in the U.S. Amateur, he won 13 major championships (as they were counted at the time) in 20 attempts. Jones was the first player to win The Double, both the U.S. Open and The Open Championship in the same year (1926). 1930: Grand Slam Jones is still the only player ever to have won the Grand Slam, or all four major championships, in the same year (1930). Jones made a bet on himself achieving this extraordinary feat with British bookmakers early in 1930, before the first tournament of the Slam, at odds of 50–1, and collected over $60,000 when he did it.

Jones represented the United States in the Walker Cup five times, winning nine of his 10 matches, and the U.S. won the trophy all five times. He served as playing captain of the U.S. team in 1928 and 1930. He also won two other tournaments against professionals: the 1927 Southern Open and the 1930 Southeastern Open. Jones was a life-long member of the Atlanta Athletic Club (at the club's original site, now the East Lake Golf Club), and the Capital City Club in Atlanta. Jones is considered one of the five giants of the 1920s American sports scene, along with baseball's Babe Ruth, boxing's Jack Dempsey, football's Red Grange, and tennis player Bill Tilden. He was the first recipient of the AAU's Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States. He is the only sports figure to receive two ticker-tape parades in New York City, the first in 1926 and the second in 1930.

Jones is memorialized in Augusta, Georgia at the Golf Gardens and has the Bobby Jones Expressway, also known as Interstate 520, named for him. Sportsmanship Jones was not only a consummately skilled golfer but exemplified the principles of sportsmanship and fair play. Early in his amateur career, he was in the final playoff of the 1925 U.S. Open at the Worcester Country Club. During the match, his ball ended up in the rough just off the fairway, and as he was setting up to play his shot, his iron caused a slight movement of the ball. He immediately got angry with himself, turned to the marshals, and called a penalty on himself. The marshals discussed among themselves and questioned some of the gallery whether they had seen Jones's ball move. Their decision was that neither they nor anyone else had witnessed any incident, so the decision was left to Jones. Bobby Jones called the two-stroke penalty on himself, not knowing that he would lose the tournament by one stroke. When he was praised for his gesture, Jones replied, "You may as well praise a man for not robbing a bank." The USGA's sportsmanship award is named the Bob Jones Award in his honor.

St Andrews, Scotland Jones had a unique relationship with the town of St Andrews, Scotland. On his first appearance on the Old Course in The Open Championship of 1921, he withdrew after 11 holes in the third round, when he failed to complete the hole (in effect disqualifying himself), and tore up his scorecard, although he finished the round and indeed played the fourth round as well. He firmly stated his dislike for The Old Course and the town reciprocated, saying in the press, "Master Bobby is just a boy, and an ordinary boy at that." Later, he came to love the Old Course and the town like few others. When he won the Open at the Old Course in 1927, he wowed the crowd by asking that the trophy remain with his friends at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club rather than return with him to Atlanta. He won The Amateur Championship (British Amateur Championship) over The Old Course in 1930, and scored a double eagle 2 on the fourth hole (then a par-5, now a par-4), by holing a very long shot from a fairway bunker.

In 1958, he was named a Freeman of the City of St Andrews, becoming only the second American to be so honored, the other being Benjamin Franklin in 1759. Today, a scholarship exchange bearing the Jones name exists between the University of St Andrews and both Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. At Emory, four students are sent to St Andrews for an all-expenses-paid year of study and travel. In return, Emory accepts four students from St Andrews each year. The program, the Robert T. Jones Scholarship, is among the most prestigious scholarships offered by any university. University, family, career Jones was highly successful outside of golf as well. He earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech in 1922, where he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, and played for the golf team. He then earned a B.A. in English Literature from Harvard College in 1924, where he was a member of the Owl Club. After only one year in law school at Emory University, he passed the Georgia bar exam. While attending Emory University, Jones became a member of Phi Delta Phi.

After passing the Georgia bar exam, Jones joined his father's law firm in Atlanta. Jones was married in 1924 to the former Mary Rice Malone. They had three children — Clara, Robert Tyre III, and Mary Ellen. When he retired from golf at age 28, he concentrated on his Atlanta law practice. That same year, 1930, he was honored with the first James E. Sullivan Award, awarded annually by the Amateur Athletic Union to the most outstanding amateur athlete in the United States. Golf films, golf club design In addition, Jones made 18 instructional golf films in Hollywood in the early 1930s, where he coached well-known stars with golf pointers. The films were very popular, and Jones gave up his amateur status while earning lucrative contract money for this venture. These films were put into storage and were unavailable for decades, but were later resurrected by Ely Callaway, who was a distant relative of Jones's, and were made available in digital format for purchase, some 60 years after their original release. Jones worked with A.G. Spalding & Co.

to develop the first set of matched clubs in the early 1930s; the clubs sold very well and are still considered among the best-designed sets ever made. Augusta National Following his retirement from competitive golf in 1930, and even in the years leading up to that, Jones had become one of the most famous athletes in the world, and was recognized virtually everywhere he went in public. While certainly appreciative of the enormous adulation and media coverage, this massive attention caused Jones to lose personal privacy in golf circles, and he wished to create a private golf club where he and his friends could play golf in peace and quiet. For several years, he searched for a property near Atlanta where he could develop his own golf club. His friend Clifford Roberts, a New York City investment dealer, knew of Jones's desire, became aware of a promising property for sale in Augusta, Georgia, where Jones's wife had grown up, and informed Jones about it.

Jones first visited Fruitlands, an Augusta arboretum and indigo plantation since the Civil War era, in the spring of 1930, and he purchased it for $70,000 in 1931, with the plan to design a golf course on the site. Jones co-designed the Augusta National course with Alister MacKenzie; the new club opened in early 1933. He founded the Masters Tournament, first played at Augusta in March 1934. The new tournament, originally known as the Augusta National Invitational, was an immediate success, and attracted most of the world's top players right from its start. Jones came out of retirement to play, essentially on an exhibition basis, and his presence guaranteed enormous media attention, boosting the new tournament's fame. World War II During World War II, Jones served as an officer in the U.S. Army Air Forces. His superiors wanted to him to play exhibition golf in the United States, but Jones was insistent on serving overseas. In 1943 he was promoted to major and trained as an intelligence officer, serving in England with the Ninth Air Force, where he made the acquaintance of General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Landing in Normandy on June 7, 1944, Jones spent two months with a front line division as a prisoner of war interrogator, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. During the war, Jones permitted the U.S. Army to graze cattle on the grounds at Augusta National. Later, in 1947, he founded Peachtree Golf Club in Atlanta and co-designed the course with Robert Trent Jones. Masters Tournament, health worries Jones did play in the Masters every year it was held until 1948, when he was 46 years old. By then, his health had declined to the stage where this was no longer possible. But with his health difficulties, and being past his prime and not competing elsewhere to stay in tournament form, he never truly contended to win the Masters, although his scores were usually respectable. These were largely ceremonial performances, since his main duty was as host of the event. His extraordinary popularity, efforts with the course design, and tournament organization boosted the profile of the Masters significantly.

The tournament, jointly run by Jones and Clifford Roberts, made many important innovations which became the norm elsewhere, such as gallery ropes to control the flow of the large crowds, many scoreboards around the course, the use of red / green numbers on those scoreboards to denote under / over par scores, an international field of top players, high-caliber television coverage, and week-long admission passes for patrons, which became extremely hard to obtain. The tournament also sought and welcomed feedback from players, fans, and writers, leading to continual improvement over the years. The Masters gradually evolved to being one of the most respected tournaments in the world, one of the four major championships. Incapacity and death In 1948, Jones was diagnosed with syringomyelia, a fluid-filled cavity in his spinal cord which caused first pain, then paralysis. He was eventually restricted to a wheelchair. He died in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 18, 1971, about a week after converting to Catholicism. Jones was baptized on his death bed by Monsignor John D. Stapleton, pastor of the Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta, the church attended by the Jones family and was buried in Atlanta's historic Oakland Cemetery.

He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974. Major championships #Major_championships Other records Jones's four titles in the U.S. Open remain tied for the most ever in that championship, along with Willie Anderson, Ben Hogan, and Jack Nicklaus. His four second-place finishes in the U.S. Open also set a record, since tied by Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus, and Phil Mickelson, until 2009 when Mickelson recorded his fifth second-place finish. His five titles in the U.S. Amateur are a record. Jones was ranked as the fourth greatest golfer of all time by Golf Digest magazine in 2000. Jack Nicklaus was first, Ben Hogan second, and Sam Snead third. Jones was ranked as the third greatest golfer of all time in a major survey published by Golf Magazine, September 2009. Jack Nicklaus was ranked first, and Tiger Woods was ranked second, with Ben Hogan fourth and Sam Snead fifth.

Films Jones appeared in a series of short instructional films produced by Warner Brothers in 1931 titled How I Play Golf, by Bobby Jones (12 films) and in 1933 titled How to Break 90 (6 films). Actors and actresses, mostly under contract with Warner Brothers, but also from other studios, volunteered to appear in these 18 episodes. Some of the more well known actors to appear in the instructional plots included James Cagney, Joe E. Brown, Edward G. Robinson, W.C. Fields, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Richard Barthelmess, Richard Arlen, Guy Kibbee, Warner Oland and Loretta Young. Various scenarios involving the actors were used to provide an opportunity for Jones to convey a lesson about a particular part of the game. The shorts were directed by the prolific George Marshall. Jones was the subject of the quasi-biographical 2004 feature film Bobby Jones: A Stroke of Genius in which he was portrayed by James Caviezel. The film was a major box office flop, grossing only $1.2 million the first weekend and $2.7 million overall, against a production cost of over $17 million.

The film was also littered with historical inaccuracies. The Jones legend was also used to create a supporting character in The Legend of Bagger Vance in 2000, portrayed by Joel Gretsch, and the event where he called his own penalty is used for the main character, Rannulph Junuh. Books Jones authored several books on golf including Down the Fairway with O.B. Keeler (1927), The Rights and Wrongs of Golf (1933), Golf Is My Game (1959), Bobby Jones on Golf (1966), and Bobby Jones on the Basic Golf Swing (1968) with illustrator Anthony Ravielli. The 300-copy limited edition of "Down The Fairway" is considered one of the rarest and most sought after golf books by collectors. To keep this book readily available to golfers, Herbert Warren Wind included a reproduction of "Down the Fairway" in his Classics of Golf Library. Jones has been the subject of several books, most notably The Bobby Jones Story and A Boy's Life of Bobby Jones, both by O.B. Keeler.

Other notable texts are The Life and Times of Bobby Jones: Portrait of a Gentleman by Sidney L. Matthew, The Greatest Player Who Never Lived by J. Michael Veron, and Triumphant Journey: The Saga of Bobby Jones and The Grand Slam of Golf by Richard Miller. Published in 2006, "The Grand Slam" by Mark Frost has received much note as being evocative of Jones's life and times. A special room is dedicated to Jones's life and accomplishments at the United States Golf Association Museum and Arnold Palmer Center for Golf History in Far Hills, New Jersey. Bobby Jones Golf Company Founded in 2003, the Bobby Jones Golf Company designs, develops, and sells metal-woods, wedges and hybrid golf clubs. The company has an exclusive, worldwide license agreement with the family of Bobby Jones (known as Jonesheirs, Inc.) and the Hartmarx Corporation for the use of the Bobby Jones name for golf equipment and golf accessories. The craftsman is Jesse Ortiz. Bobby Jones - Biography - IMDb Bobby Jones Jump to: Overview (3) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (1) | Trivia (7) Overview (3) Robert Tyre Jones Jr.

Mini Bio (1) Golfing legend Bobby Jones was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 17, 1903. He began playing golf as a young child, and won his first tournament when he was nine years old. In 1916, at age 14, he made it to the third round of the US National Amateur tournament. Golf was not just a passion with him but almost an obsession, and while he was attending the Georgia School of Technology--from which he graduated in 1922--he continued playing golf, and his astonishing skill at the game resulted in his becoming one of the most admired sports stars of the 1920s and widely credited with making golf one of the most popular sports in the country. He won the US Open in 1923--his first major tournament win--and again in 1924, 1925, 1927, 1928 and 1930.

He took the US Amateur title in 1924, 1925, 1927 and 1928 and the British Open championship in 1926, 1927 and 1930. In 1930 he took the US Open and US Amateur titles and British Open and British Amateur titles, a feat that has never been duplicated. He won a total of 13 major championships. He was a member of the US Walker Cup teams in 1922, 1924, 1926, 1928 and 1930. In 1931 he began making a series of short instructional films, titled "How I Play Golf", for Warner Brothers Pictures, which were tremendously successful. Directed by veteran filmmaker--and duffer-- George Marshall , these shorts featured many Hollywood golfing enthusiasts such as Leon Errol , Joe E. Brown and W.C. Fields , who appeared in them for the opportunity to be instructed by a man many believed to be the finest golfer in the history of the game.

Jones retired from golf shortly after starting these films--since he was being paid for them he could no longer claim amateur status--and, since he was admitted to the Georgia bar in 1928 after obtaining his law degree from Emory University in 1927, he opened a law practice in Atlanta. Jones helped to establish the Augusta National Golf Club, and in 1934 he founded the annual Masters Tournament, held at the club; it eventually became one of the most prestigious tournaments in the game. In 1948 he suffered a spinal injury that resulted in his being confined to a wheelchair, but he continued to run his diverse business interests from his home in Atlanta. In 1958 he was accorded the singular honor of being allowed "freedom of the burgh" at St. Andrews, Scotland--the last American to receive that honor was American Revolution figure Benjamin Franklin. Bobby Jones died in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 18, 1971. - IMDb Mini Biography By: frankfob2@yahoo.com Spouse (1)

Question: Golfer Bobby Jones was born in which state?
Answer: Georgia